Just like we predicted a few weeks back, the month of August became a testing time for Bitcoin after the cryptocurrency saw a sudden price boost to over $8,000 at the end of last month. Like it was expected, during the past seven days Bitcoin’s price tumbled down significantly as more sellers entered the scene, prompted by news of another delay of a Bitcoin ETF approval.
As reported by CNBC, during this period Bitcoin’s price dropped down below $6,000 – a price range that hasn’t been touched since June. According to the media portal, the price correction is most probably due to a “bit of panic selling”. A market watcher who spoke to CNBC’s reporters described the recent sell-off as a “momentum-based selling” triggered by “the ETF kickback”. Bitcoin’s price drop was expectedly mirrored with a negative price correction of over 80 cryptocurrencies, the most notable case being Ether which dropped to its lowest point since last September.
Bullish Pressure Returns
Since our last update, Bitcoin’s price saw some expected correction and fell down from its highest point of $6,544.23 on Thursday afternoon to a monthly low of $5,985.10 on early Tuesday morning. Confirming that it was a spike in selling interest on Monday that drove the price downwards is a boost in 24-hour trading volume, which nearly hit $6.5 billion during that day.
Since the Monday sell-off, the trading volume has subsided to a more usual $4.4 billion, which hints that there will be fewer big surprises these days. Naturally, as Bitcoin’s price began to fall the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization also dropped and is currently sitting at $111 billion.
Our technical analysis shows that the trading market is currently bullish, with 8 out of 12 technical indicators and all 12 moving averages sending a buying signal. However, the SMA 100 has fallen below the SMA 200 with a wider gap, showing there is less resistance to be found on the downward path. RSI and Williams %R are also showing overbought conditions, signaling that bulls may get tired soon.
If the buying pressure continues, Bitcoin should be able to head towards $6,700. However, stay wary of any sudden price moves around these times because, after all, August is expected to be a bearish month.
22-Year Old Crypto Millionaire Scammed for $24 Million
One update that made plenty of headlines this week in the cryptocurrency sector was news about the Finnish crypto-millionaire Aarni Otava Saarimaa being scammed out of his fortune. Reportedly, the 22-year old investor and crypto enthusiast was scammed by a Thai group of fraudsters which took over 5,564 Bitcoins from Saarima – a lot that, at the time, was worth roughly $24 million.
As the story goes, Saarima was interested in making crypto investments in shares of new business ventures. He was approached by the group with propositions to invest in three companies as well as a new casino and cryptocurrency token called Dragon Coin, which was reportedly to be used in a new Macau cryptocurrency casino.
To convince the young millionaire, the group took Saarima for a trip to a casino in Macau to convince him that the tokens he invested in will be used there. But instead of investing his Bitcoins into the ventures, his BTC funds were converted into Thai currency, dispersed over seven accounts of the group members, and used to buy land plots. Reports highlight that it took seven months for the authorities to track the coins and get approval to arrest the nine individuals involved, one of which was Thai actor Jiratpisit ‘Boom’ Jaravijit.